Among "Fortnite" Us -- has Epic Games copied Among Us?

[tikker]

Fortnite has added a new game mode called "Impostors": https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/trust-nobody-introducing-fortnite-impostors In this new game mode so-called Agents have to "Complete Assignments like calibrating chests and llamas, repairing the Battle Bus, and delivering Storm reports for analysis." in a secret facility. While doing that, there are so-called impostors who's "goal is simple — eliminate enough Agents to take control of The Bridge before being discovered.". At the end of each round players come together and "Agents and Impostors will vote to either eject someone from The Bridge or to skip their vote for that Discussion."

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Sound familiar? So thought the developers of Among Us as well. They have expressed their dissatisfaction on Twitter. Even though the game itself is another incarnation of this concept, they feel this goes beyond simply copying the idea of the game, as more elements down to the theme and names/terms look like a straight up copy. Someone else has pointed out that even the map layout seems to have minimal changes to Among Us' map:

 

I don't feel it's very Tech News worty, but what do you think? Have we arrived at a point where these kind of things simply are unavoidable, or do you think Epic has crossed a (moral?) line and should have at least offered the Among Us developers a collaboration, given the context of how they have implemented it?

[8tg]

Among Us a concept is nothing new, battle royale games are nothing new, I’m only surprised it didn’t happen sooner.

[da na]

Fortnite is becoming less popular, they’re trying to capitalize on the success of amogus so they can steal more money from 8 year olds.

[duncannah]

Among Us has been around for a while and its popularity seems to have started to die down, so I don't see a big problem with this

[sub68]

31 minutes ago, 8tg said:

battle royale games are nothing new

yep, for example watched SAO GGO which had a early thought of battle royal.

The manga is 7 years old.

https://myanimelist.net/manga/82795/Sword_Art_Online_Alternative__Gun_Gale_Online

[sub68]

2 minutes ago, Caroline said:

Kids playing won't really care about who stole whose idea first

Agreed, kids don't understand which came first.

I had to explain smth that took like 30min to a 8 year old once.

[sub68]

6 minutes ago, Caroline said:

Imagine what elementary school teachers have to go through.

oh gosh.

[Middcore]

The concept of Among Us was not original. Board games had been doing it for years. Shadows Over Camelot was probably the first "popular" one that used the formula of all the players trying to achieve common goals with secret traitors in their midst.

[Heliian]

Among us just copied "werewolf". 

[BuckGup]

What no, that's like saying Call of Duty copied CSGO because they are both FPS games. 

[Mnky313]

26 minutes ago, BuckGup said:

What no, that's like saying Call of Duty copied CSGO because they are both FPS games. 

idk, making a social deduction game isn't copying among us but literally copying the exact gameplay, components, unique elements, having a similar map and even wording used is a bit ridiculous. 

Like Town of Salem and TTT (Trouble in Terrorist town) are also similar games but I wouldn't say they copied each other or that among us copied them.

[CerealExperimentsLain]

38 minutes ago, BuckGup said:

What no, that's like saying Call of Duty copied CSGO because they are both FPS games. 

Ahem, Doom Clones, that genre of games are called 'Doom Clones'.

[Murasaki]

wonder how thats going to get monetized

[Tom09]

The problem I have is that fortnite and among us are passed their hay day. They are both on their decline and honestly the people that play fortnite and among us probably dont really care that much. If among us think that they have copied them then they can bring that up. There has been Cs:go modes in fortntie as well.

[Quackers101]

this dancer in fortnite is looking a bit... SuS!

*was sent to the ranch*

[SpookyCitrus]

2 hours ago, sub68 said:

yep, for example watched SAO GGO which had a early thought of battle royal.

The manga is 7 years old.

https://myanimelist.net/manga/82795/Sword_Art_Online_Alternative__Gun_Gale_Online

The first battleroyale I ever played was the mod that Player Unknown made for Arma 2, and Arma 2's DayZ mod back in 2013. It was the OG before they went on to make the standalone game based on the mod, PUBG. The Arma 2 mod essentially started it all at least in the gaming industry, not sure if the mod was around before GGO.

[Quackers101]

40 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

The first battleroyale I ever played was the mod that Player Unknown made for Arma 2, and Arma 2's DayZ mod back in 2013. It was the OG before they went on to make the standalone game based on the mod, PUBG. The Arma 2 mod essentially started it all at least in the gaming industry, not sure if the mod was around before GGO.

I guess, there are likely older ones with similar ideas or battleroyale theme, as for a big open map shooter being more for that mod?
but yeah, could go on a loop to what started or created this or get something even earlier.

Spoiler

 

Shootmania storm (8-9 years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMM0LGGUIwQ

The Culling (2016 EA) to the failure of culling 2 and minecraft battleroyales, which might have bred for more melee and magic like battleroyales.

from NARAKA, Spellbreak and others.

 

 

[LAwLz]

It's a bit bad taste to copy it to such a degree, but that's pretty much the only thing I can say about it.

 

Among Us is not original. In high school I used to play a board game called "Ultimate Werewolf" that was quite similar to Among Us in game play, and that game was in turn based on a game that can be dated back to the 80's.

 

Fortnite is not original either. I saw someone mention SAO having Battle Royal 7 years ago and that's probably true, but battle royal dates back even further than that. The earliest I know of is the novel Battle Royale which came out in 1999.

 

Everyone copies everyone and barely anything is that original anymore. It's bad taste to change so little, but would it really have made any difference if Epic had avoided using the term "imposter", or whatever the Among Us devs complained about? I don't think so. 

[Quackers101]

7 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Among Us is not original. In high school I used to play a board game called "Ultimate Werewolf" that was quite similar to Among Us in game play, and that game was in turn based on a game that can be dated back to the 80's.

 

Everyone copies everyone and barely anything is that original anymore. It's bad taste to change so little, but would it really have made any difference if Epic had avoided using the term "imposter", or whatever the Among Us devs complained about? I don't think so. 

Mostly get a bad taste as on jumping on a trend, and that we DO know who it tries to imitate and that the wording further justify that thought and including the images used/created for it. However can't say for it copying and "stealing" something from someone else, a bit like the PUBG devs tried to sue over... which well... as for the bad clones, that can be a different aspect.

[CerealExperimentsLain]

"Gamers debate which video game was first in having the original idea to copy a game play design from a 21 year old Japanese movie."

[Arika]

so this will be the new trend for games going forward? Find something poplar and jam it in as hard as you can to any game you make

 

Horde mode/zombie mode

Battle Royal

and now "Imposters"

 

There are no original games any more, everything is a copy of a copy of a copy and/or a sequel.

 

I honestly don't remember the last game i played where i thought "wow, this is so original"

[thrasher_565]

company's copy each other some battle it out some dont. as it sits now even if you copy something and get sued you still might come out on top. there's no real consensus for big company really to big to fail.

 

just look at the pokeymon game that looks like dota 2....or league of legends

[Middcore]

 

[Generic Username]

among us is just a 2020 equivalent of old imposter games

[Quackers101]

10 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

just look at the pokeymon game that looks like dota 2....or league of legends

At least something like that takes their own spin on it, although a focus on Paid to Win, kind of.